The VMNHcast

VMNH Assistant Curator of Archaeology Dr. Hayden Bassett returns to the VMNHcast, this time to talk about the Smith River Survey, a two-year project to assess the status of archaeological sites along the Smith River. In this episode, Dr. Bassett sits down with VMNH Administrator of Science Ben Williams to discuss how these sites are inspected, the indigenous peoples who once lived along the Smith River, and the threat that climate change poses to these valuable sites. 

Virginia is home to an incredible diversity of millipedes, and VMNH Myriapodologist Dr. Jackson Means is here to tell you all about them. In this episode of the VMNHcast, Dr. Means sits down with VMNH Administrator of Science Ben Williams and offers a broad overview of millipede life, along with some tales of new and rare species he's discovered in the field.

Last year, Jeff Lowe, one of the main subjects in the hit Netflix documentary series "Tiger King," ran afoul of the law. When an attorney from PETA needed the help of entomologists to determine whether a young lion in Lowe's care had died of neglect, he knew exactly where to turn: The Virginia Museum of Natural History! In this episode, VMNH Executive Director Dr. Joe Keiper and Associate Curator of Recent Invertebrates Dr. Kal Ivanov discuss the role they played in the court case and provide an overview of forensic entomology, the use of insects found on a body to determine a time of death. 

For the past six months, VMNH Paleo Technician Lucy Treado has been working tirelessly to prepare the fossil skeleton of Petra, the large Ice Age cat recovered from a cave in western Virginia. In this episode, Lucy sits down with VMNH Administrator of Science Ben Williams to discuss the process of prepping a delicate skeleton, some surprising findings along the way, and the current theory regarding Petra's species.

In the second episode of the VMNHcast, Administrator of Science Ben Williams sits down with Dr. Alex Hastings, Paleontology Curator at the Science Museum of Minnesota and former Assistant Curator of Paleontology at the Virginia Museum of Natural History. Last fall, Dr. Hastings excavated Petra, a large fossil cat dating back to the Ice Age, from a cave in western Virginia. Shortly after, Dr. Hastings sat down with Williams and discussed the difficulties of removing such a large, delicate specimen from a treacherous cave,  theories of how Petra wound up in the cave, and much more. Stay tuned for an update on Petra coming very soon!

Welcome to the official podcast of the Virginia Museum of Natural History! In this inaugural episode, Administrator of Science Ben Williams sits down with Dr. Hayden Bassett, VMNH Assistant Curator of Archaeology and Director of the Cultural Heritage Monitoring Lab (CHML) to discuss how the lab is using advanced satellite imagery to monitor impacts on important archaeological sites around the world, including sites in Ukraine that are currently under threat. Also in attendance is Capt. Bill Welsh, CHML Director of Operations.